| Author | Message | ||
     Easyflier |
The Drummer outperforms the race muffler in the range that you'll be riding on the street, and if you don't want to have your pipe modified the price is adjusted for the $100 core charge. So for $450 you get your stock muffler and the Drummer. If you watch eBay you can pick up a stocker for less than $40. "But I'm a sucker - all I want is better low end torque, decent sound and the BEST value there is. " IMO that would be the Drummer. | ||
| Amazing_sponge |
Easyflier, that is a good point. The "keep your old muffler" option is still there although not preferred - they can't keep on sending the mufflers out when they don't get any in and as Brian said it would either die off or get ridiculously expensive. Can I still ride without putting the ECM on? Sponge | ||
| Easyflier |
I think most people are doing the swap but you're right I don't think Kevin & Brian have an endless supply of cheap stock mufflers. Yes, you can still ride without the ECM but you won't get much in the way of performance, just the noise. Of course it's pleasing to the ear to let the sound of that V-twin out.  | ||
| Darthane |
Amazing, I'm not painting my bike, since they came out with a black XB9R. I'm simply going to buy the black bodywork and keep both sets. As for the race muffler with the stock ECM, you can, and as for it running lean, shouldn't the O2 sensor eventually get the ratio back to a decent level? Anyhow, like Easy mentioned, you probably wouldn't see much of a performance gain - the kit is meant to be a kit. ECM, filter, can. FWIW, I will be buying a Drummer from Brian soon. I currently have the full race kit. I'm undecided if I will be keeping the race can or not. It has been ceramic coated black and had the tips of the exhaust outlets squared off. Since I'll be swapping my stock can for the Drummer I'll most likely keep the race can so I can put that on when I get the Drummer ceramic coated. Hehe... Bryan | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
After a disparaging remark from a salesman and derogatory remarks with regards to the bike I was purchasing my parts for, I have stopped going to Arrowhead HD/Buell in Phoenix AZ. They are located 10 mins from my current residence and in the beginning they were a good dealer to work with. That changed. Now I spend 30-45 minutes to go to their competition. Hacienda HD/Buell where Mike Amrozewicz once again showed me that there are places that are more interested in helping the customer then caring what I am riding, other then to get me the corretc part that is. In this case I needed a front "S" series brakeline. Upon his look on the computer it came up back ordered. Before I could say anything else he clicked on the dealer locator and said "lets see who has one in stock" Then got on the phone to Vallejo HD/Buell. They were slammed there so it took a bit for them to confirm that they did in fact have it in stock. Hands on in stock even. He asked them to overnight it per my request. I told him I had no problem covering the overnight charge prior to him talking to them I just wanted to be able to ride for the weekend. Friday rolls around. It is late afternoon and no word. Call up and Mike jumps all over it, says he will call me back after he gets a tracking number. Gets ahold of Vallejo and no dice. No one has any knowledge of any brakeline or where it was to go. Mike calls me back and says "hey why don't you measure what you need and come one down, I will double check what I have on my floor and see what we can match up. If you don't mind it being from a HD that is..." nope not at all. I had already called around to price out getting one made. So I take a few rough measurements and head on down. Mike has a bunch of lines on the counter when I get there and we start comparing them to whats on the "S" series on the floor and finally settle on the front line for an '04 sporty. I took it. Its a bit long for the job but it works like a champ. Since it was actually an aftermarket line he couldn't do much with the price but he did his best, got it down to a little more then what I would have paid for the stock line and overnight shipping but I had the line and here was someone who went the extra mile to get a rider on the road. That in itself was more important to me then the extra cost. I have since been back there to pick up a front brake pads and Mike has shown that wasn't a fluke, he was doing the same for another customer that just wanted to get on the road and wasn't worried that it wasn't the exact part but a good substitute. That is customer service in this type of industry to me. | ||
| Bomber |
sounds like ya found a home, wyked . . .good for you! | ||
| Glitch |
Court, This goes both ways. (commenting on your original post). I work as a Non-Employee-Worker here at Coke HQ, keeping all of Legal's Technology running as smooth as possible. One thing I learned really fast was to be as friendly and approachable as possible. And not making anyone feel dumb or stupid (even if that's the case). If an attorney (or anyone in the legal division) has a problem, I show up smiling, and, even if I can't fix their problem straight away, I make sure they are smiling when I leave. So far since I've been here I've survived three major lay-offs. Good costumer service not only keeps the legal team happy, but keeps me in a job, there are other techs that are better (more knowledgeable) than I, that have lost their jobs, mainly because they simply couldn't keep their group smiling. There's a sign in my office that says "Attitudes are contagious, is your's worth catching?" it was here when I moved in, I thought "how cheesey" not any more. Dave | ||
| Court |
Dave: Great contribution to this thread and quite true. I'm betting you'll be there for a while. Court | ||
| Buddahbelly |
Sponge, I read that you are looking for a dealer OUTSIDE Texas to buy your parts from. I'm sure that you have good reasons for that. However, you may want to give the folks at Bell County HD a shot. I used them for years (until I moved to Japan) and always got EXCELLENT service. They are always willing to accommodate their customers. I bought my S3T when I lived in San Antonio and rode the 165 miles each way to have my service done in Temple. Their prices are bette than those at the San Antonio HD shop (Alamo City HD), and the quality of the service and their people are far superior. Check them out. If nothing else it's a good excuse for a road trip. | ||
| Court |
Stay tuned. | ||
| Rkc00 |
Come on Court spill the beans. Mike Long Island, NY 06 XB12X Black of course | ||
| Blake |
www.buellparts.com | ||
| Blake |
Meant to put a "?" following the above. ![: ]](http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/clipart/proud.gif) | ||
| Spectrum |
Rear bearings went out on the drive into work today. Carolina Harley sent a truck to pick it up. No charge and they were there within 45 minutes. Not bad considering the dealership was 30 miles away and I didn't buy the bike there. | ||
| Court |
I'll be posting some helpful information to speed the process when I step in to help Buell owners. Some interesting planets have recently aligned. I start a "real" job next week and it appears I am on the cusp of being accepted to a fairly noted institution (yes, you may say it. . . "institutionalized") that threatens to consume significant time. I've been getting about a dozen "cases" a month and frankly I enjoy helping folks. Just saying "I can't do it any longer" wasn't an option. I'm creating, and if someone is real zippy with .pdf style forms would welcome some help, a form that will allow me to capture the necessary information in one e-mail and put and end to the back and forth..."I also need to know what year your bike is?"..."can I get your phone numbe?"..."have you spoken to your dealer yet?"....and so forth. Things are changing and I'm confident that the level of Buell service and the road twinxt problem and solution will soon be shortened. Like I say . . . stay tuned! Court Interesting note about the ww_.buellparts.com and it was the subject of some major discussion in the basement the other night. I still have all the notes from when that ALMOST happened....9 years ago. | ||
| Bomber |
Court -- wrt forms design -- it sounds like YOU need a tech writer! drop me a line with the requirements. regareding the "real" job -- congratulations or condolances, which ever applies | ||
| Snub13 |
Spectrum, it must be contagious, my rear bearings blew out on the 23rd halfway between Rahway and Atlantic City while following the guys from Queensrych.........bummer! I'm being as nice. No need to get up-set yet, the dealer has been supportive and professional so far. I dropped it off on Monday but I haven't heard anything yet. They said that they would call H-D to see about reimbursement for the rental truck and the extra night in the hotel, I'm not really holding my breath on that one but it's worth a try. Court, it was nice meeting you at Liberty, hope everything goes well with your "real" job. Tim | ||
| Court |
These are exciting times and there are exciting things going on. In the coming weeks, we're going to revisit some of the basics of customer service. Some of this will be Buell related, some won't be. I submit that some of the basic principles are fairly portable between various brands and products. Topics will range from simple human nature and behavior, we'll talk about processes and procedures to see what you like and don't like and I'm going to entertain some discussion to encourage some creative input as to what Buell could do to provide world class customer service. In addition, I'll share some of my personal thoughts on some of the less effective means of achieving resolution. For those of you who are interested, I'll periodically be making reference to a number of books in my personal library. If you want details, feel free to ask. The one I am polishing off now is particularly timely given some of the recent scuffles over customer service. Here is the index of my current "bedside light reading"
You'll find two of my all-time favorite authors in that list (yes, I read REALLY DULL crap!) and we may touch on a few product liability issues, but generally just to dispel some of the myths of the internet. We're going to start on the premise that the very purpose of CUSTOMER service is customer oriented, not driven simply by avoidance of liability. These are fascinating times and I'll be eager to get some help and input. Court BOMBER: Add V.I.N. and we're good to go | ||
| Daves |
I will be watching and learning all I can from this thread. | ||
| Naustin |
All I wanted from my dealer was an honest attempt to fix my bike. I can understand a little rudeness, and I can understand being wrong the 1st time and having to take a second crack at it, I can even understand failure - if I believe an honest attempt was made. I don't understand being blown-off and outright lied to and I think Buell should not tolerate such dealerships. Buell Reps, on various models with known problems should secretly audit dealers several times per year. Like fake drownings in swimming pools to see if lifeguards are paying attention. Any unsatisfactory results should be dealt with by HD corporate by withholding all new HD models from said dealer until their attitude/service on Buell improves. All HD dealers should be required to offer, service and promote Buell at some minimum level at least and pass the secret audits or lose HD in general. Screwing Buell owners should be looked at no differently than if they were screwing only Sportster owners - which used to happen too (maybe still does?). If I were in charge, Dealers that didn't like this policy would be welcome to sell Suzuki instead. | ||
| Mainstreamer |
Bring it on Court, should be interesting! | ||
| Henrik |
moved from other - non-pertinent - thread : Could it have something to do with creating the right environment throughout all departments of the dealership in order to be successful in all aspects of the customer experience? That certainly seems to be the basis Dave has created at Appleton. Henrik | ||
| Court |
>>>Could it have something to do with creating the right environment throughout all departments of the dealership in order to be successful in all aspects of the customer experience? Good point. . . but I suggest it starts further upstream. I'll post a short "reading assignment" soon and we'll talk more about this in the next couple days. | ||
| Blake |
Your "upstream" comment strikes a nerve with me. Grrrr. If you are hinting at what I think you are hinting at, I couldn't agree more strongly. As I see it, there are two flanks which must be attacked/captured in order to win the battle for customer satisfaction, one on the downstream sales/customer service end, and one on the upstream design/production end. The design/production flank must be attacked immediately from the very beginning as part of the product marketing plan and the product definition including detailed performance and quality specifications. I can see significant problems on both ends for Buell. Unfortunately Buell lacks total control of the upstream end and seems to enjoy little control of the downstream end. That kind of situation is very tough to overcome. A customer should NEVER need to contact the OEM or go on a rant on the internet to gain proper warranty service or resolution of a problem. How many dealerships are educated in and operate a rigorous cost of quality program? I'd wager zero. How many Buell models have undergone a rigorous post-production long-term cost of quality review? | ||
| Court |
Easy there Mr. Soyer! . . . you DO remember who Francis Soyer was? . . . settle down. We're not going to start by redesigning the bike (there'll be a later chapter on design dealing with designing to minimize subsequent problems emanating from human intervention...I may call it "If you don't touch me, you can't hurt me") but we're going to start at the very beginning with the first contact a customer has with Buell. Regardless of where you heard of Buell, seeing a friends bike, an IMS show, reading a magazine ad, your first "interpersonal handshake" is when you contact, either in person or personally a Buell dealer. BUELL DEALER? . . you said the words Buell dealer? You betcha and I know we could all don singlets and mix it up for days. Let's, for the moment, stay out of the ring and think communally. Remember when you met your wife or girlfriend for the first time? Authors, poets and writer live for the "first time". Be it romance, fishing, flying or buying a motorcycle often times our sweetest, and most lasting memories, are shaped in the first minutes. I've seen a lot of country on a motorcycle and my fondest memories still include my first ride on the Cushman and walking into Henry Patterson's Topeka Harley-Davidson/Buell and buying my 1987-1/2 Sportster 883 Hugger. We'll be talking about this element of the entire experience periodically over the next week. My hope is to keep it positive and focused. If you have an instant concern or feel the need to tell me who you hope will run for President, this is a poor forum. I want to share some thoughts, more importantly I want to hear some thoughts. We're going to start with the initial dealer contact and move through the CUSTOMER SERVICE experience. I welcome your thoughts and input. But now, your first reading assignment. This is an amazing book that shot to, and stayed at, the top of the New York Times Bestseller List. It, like "WELL MADE IN AMERICA" (which we'll use later) is not longer in print, but is an invaluable tool. Take a minute, if you get a chance to slip over to Amazon and read about Robert Townsend. He's a guy with an amazing background and, frankly, reminds me in some ways of Erik Buell. EXAMPLE: Townsend on Reserved Parking places at the plant. . . "if you want the best parking place, be the first to arrive in the morning". You get my drift. Read this (and yes, it's the ENTIRE chapter right here) chapter and we'll talk a bit. I'm going to name a few names. If that bothers you, you might want to avoid this thread.   ASSIGNMENT:
Court 10.13.06 | ||
| Jlnance |
I've recently called the dealership, so I'll use that experience. It was good. The receptionist answers the phone, I ask for the service dept, get them, and make an apointment for a tire change. Everyone is polite. I call back (cause they can't transfer me) and ask for the parts department, so I can order the tires. The parts guy is super helpful, does some research, and calls me back with prices. I'd say it was a good experience. A lot of that is because I know who to ask for when I call. If I'd told the receptionist I wanted new tires, I'm not sure it would have gone as smoothly. My first contact with the dealership was through the Riders Edge program. That was a great way to get introduced. My first telephone contact with them was a few days later when I bought a Blast. Having just spend 2 days on Blasts in the RE program, it was an easy purchase. I bought it over the phone, my only choice being whether I wanted the Red or Yellow one. I chose Red. | ||
| Jlnance |
A customer should NEVER need to contact the OEM or go on a rant on the internet to gain proper warranty service or resolution of a problem. How many dealerships are educated in and operate a rigorous cost of quality program? I'd wager zero. Some thoughts Blake. The idea that something is wrong if people have to go on the internet to get service is a common belief. But if it is true, then things are almost universally wrong. Try calling Microsoft, Dell, or HP to get help with your computer. Then try posting the same question on an internet group. You will almost always get better support on the internet. Thats more than an anomoly. It's one of the strengths of the internet. The quality point you bring up is right on. I've heard the stories of digital torque wrenches used at the Buell factory to record information about the assembly of the bike. I've wondered about taking the bike to the dealer, and them removing and reattaching those bolts, probably w/o using a torque wrench at all. I to doubt any of them are running a quality program of the sort that you would see at a manufacturing plant. Lets combine these two issues. Things could be improved with a dealer quality program, but I don't want Buell or HD to create one. I think we could devise a better one here on Badweb if we wanted to. We certainly have the knowlege base. It would be better for the same reasons you get better support on the internet. | ||
| Bigdaddy |
If you have technical skills to explain a new/seldomly seen issue and you post that issue, in full detail, on the proper site you'll be shocked at the amount of real help you'll receive -- I don't know nothing about that Microsoft reference. My example is Cisco and Nokia. They have their own internal sites for Q&A,,,,if you post up a real world failure/shortcoming your phone will be ringing off the hook with qualified folks 'begging' you to talk to them. I posted this on Thursday: "Pushed to 4.2.2 today. Can't make administrative add/deletes without a bounce. Same upgrade causes loss of connectivity with Kiwi log file servers. What's the fix?" I had a whole new release, w/fix, in 2 hours. That rocks. G2 | ||
| Blake |
I need to better state my intended meaning. I should have wrote that "A customer should NEVER need to contact the OEM or go on an inflammatory emotional rant on the internet to gain proper warranty service or resolution by a dealership or OEM of a warranty issue." What I'm trying to say is that one should never need resort to an internet tirade to gain the attention of the dealership or OEM. Of course finding solutions to problems on the internet is wonderful. It's what we do here, no? | ||
| Court |
Okay....I can see I am going to have to resort to my John Muir "bag-o-tricks" and buy you all milk crates. We're talking about the "big picture" here, not instant specific cases. We'll dealing with the basics. Back to our lesson and an example. I'm going to use two dealerships near and dear to my heart, both that I have high regard for but I'm going to have to name them to make my point. When I call a dealership, before they ever pick up the phone, they have a mission to Think about this in it's most basic form, one that would bring us judos from John Maynard Keynes....each and every time I contact Buell or a Buell dealer, there exists the potential that I want something and I WANT TO SEND THEM MONEY. It's the basis of our exchange economy, the swapping of things of values. Say this out loud....
Selling is trading a product or service for money. Along the way you may see a CTO play a guitar, you may get a free t-shirt with a silly hand signal, a magazine or an advertising CD but the purpose of advertising (which we'll touch on later) is to simply enable and promote commerce....the above mentioned swapping. Therefore Buell and their dealers have, as their first challenge, paving a highway that makes it as easy as possible for my wallet to meet your goods and services. Let's talk. . . . When I call APPLETON Harley-Davidson/Buell a pleasant voice answers the phone. In the first sentence, she asks "how may I help you?" I mutter the famous words "Dave, in sales, please" and within seconds one of two things happens.
This is the perfect world. The process takes a few minutes. There are no long waits in which my spending enthusiasm, the proverbial "heat of the moment" has time to extinguish. I saw the "wall" on the internet, I want something and I want it now. That's the type of consumers we are. Make me wait, let me think about it and the "I already have 400+ Buell t-shirts" logic will win and the sale will be lost. Let's contrast this for a moment with another fine Buell dealer that I call often. When I call, I get a canned impersonal "thanks for call, our options have recently changed, so please listen closely" I'll tell you a secret. To me that translates roughly into "We'd rather waste your time than ours and, to that end, we're going to make you guess and stumble through our convoluted system of bureaucracy and if you want to spend your money with us you must first traverse this electronic maze. If you have a cell phone number for anyone who works here, your best bet is to hang up immediately and call it" Tell me I am wrong. Patricia Seybold (Customers.Com) suggested that IVR (Integrated Voice Response) systems, as part of the Customer-Facing Business Process should be redesigned with thought given to the customers point of view. When I call you, before you ever pick up the phone, you should be guided by the following.
Think about these things a bit. Situations vary from dealer to dealer, company to company, but ask yourself "when I have contact, say the Buell website or when you call your dealer, if you feel good about your purchase and want to learn, buy, know more". Court 10.14.06 |
